Gordon Mitchell

Birthday: July 29, 1923 in Denver, Colorado, USA

Birth Name: Charles Allen Pendleton

Height: 191 cm

Tall, massively built, imposing-looking blond Gordon Mitchell (early on dubbed the "The Bronze Giant") was one of those perfectly developed bodybuilders who jumped on the Steve Reeves bandwa ...Show More

Tall, massively built, imposing-looking blond Gordon Mitchell (early on dubbed the "The Bronze Giant") was one of those perfectly developed bodybuilders who jumped on the Steve Reeves bandwagon and hightailed it to Italy to seek movie stardom as a Herculean strongman. Born Charles Allen Pendleton in Denver, Colorado on July 29, 1923, and raised in Inglewood, California, Mitchell served in WWII and, at one point, became a prisoner of war at the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, Gordon went to USC in Los Angeles under the G.I. bill and became a high school teacher and guidance counselor.A fitness nut with an incredible physique, he soon became part of the Venice, California "Muscle Beach" crowd and it took over. He literally flexed his way into the entertainment business as part of Mae West's musclebound revue. He toured everywhere with Ms. West from Las Vegas to the Latin Quarter with other "abs"normal actor wannabes Mickey Hargitay, Brad Harris and Reg Lewis. In between, Gordon obscurely posed as beefcake in such films as Les dix commandements (1956), Li'l Abner (1959) and Spartacus (1960), which, of course, did little to advance his acting career.In 1961, after Reeves' Les travaux d'Hercule (1958) proved a box-office smash, the non-Italian-speaking Mitchell, among others, headed off to Europe to compete on the peplum film pedestal. With his fierce and progressively hardened features, Gordon wound up playing both hero and villain, appearing regularly in the popular, if poorly dubbed, sandal-and-spear epics. In the usual over-the-top style. Gordon started off as the title strongman in Maciste contre le cyclope (1961); and went on to play the Roman warrior General Metellus in La bataille de Corinthe (1961); massively muscled hero Obro in Le Géant de Métropolis (1961); Pluto, the God of War in Vulcan, fils de Jupiter (1962); the villainous pirate Hamar in Jules César contre les pirates (1962); the title hero La colère d'Achille (1962); the barbarous villain Brenno in Brenno le tyran (1963); a slave and co-hero in Les Gladiateurs les plus forts du monde (1964); evil tyrant Omar in Simbad contro i sette saraceni (1964); villainous assassin Sven in Erik le Viking (1965); and the villainous Hunding in Il tesoro della foresta pietrificata (1965);Gordon developed a strong core of fans during this brief reign. When the film fad wore off by 1965, Mitchell, unlike many of his pectoral partners who chose to drop out of sight, moved on and muscled his way into more than 100 additional films. Many of his later 60's and 70's offerings were further down the credits list in the "spaghetti western" or "giallo mystery" categories -- staying true to the country that made him a star -- 3 colpi di Winchester per Ringo (1966), Ringo contre Jerry Colt (1966) (Kill or Be Killed), È mezzanotte... butta giù il cadavere (1966), Né pour tuer (1967), T'as le bonjour de Trinita (1967), Cible mouvante (1967), Johnny le bâtard (1967), Pour une poignée de diamants (1968), Pas de pitié pour les salopards (1968), Pour un dollar je tire (1968), Une charogne est née (1968), Le fossoyeur (1969), Sartana... si ton bras gauche te gêne, coupe-le! (1970), Inginocchiati straniero... I cadaveri non fanno ombra! (1970), Si je te rencontre, je te tue (1971), Nevada Kid (1971), Giù le mani... carogna! (Django Story) (1971), Vamos a matar Sartana (1971), Le jour du jugement (1971), Son nom est Pote (1971), Sam Wallash! ...On l'appelle Ainsi Soit-il (1971), Un uomo chiamato Dakota (1972), Planques toi minable, Trinita arrive... (1972), Django... ton tour viendra (1972), I sette del gruppo selvaggio (1975) and La polizia ordina: sparate a vista (1976).As the years went on, Gordon would branch out more internationally. Some of these films included The Arizona Kid (1970) (Philippines); Le saut de l'ange (1971) (France); Opération fric (1969) (Hong Kong); Le tigre de la rivière Kwai (1975) (Germany); Une femme spéciale (1979) (France); Kopfschuß (1981) (Germany); Inchon (1981) (US); the international mini-series Marco Polo (1982); Vivre pour survivre (1984) (France); Commando Invasion (1986) (Germany) and Evil Spawn (1987) (Taiwan).Returning to the States around 1990, Gordon continued to work sporadically (Bikini Drive-In (1995) and An Enraged New World (2002)) until his last film -- the crime action flick Malevolence (2004). The actor, briefly married in the early 1950's, died of a heart attack on September 20, 2003, in Marina del Rey, California. He was 80 years old. Hide